BiPolarBarbarian

[bipolarbarbarian]

My Homebrew for replacing BX/OSE x-in-6 and percentile skills

So after writing this, I read the Specialist for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and realized that the modularity of what i had written really smacked of that class in general, so I just wanted to say that and preface this by saying that I'm not trying to present James Raggi's work as my own, there's just some big ass coincidences. I don't think it should be an issue but if anyone has problems with it please contact me and I will remove any similarities.

I'm using the placeholder name of Expert right now until I think of something cooler that isn't Specialist

Here are my tweaks to the base x-in-6 skill system of BX/OSE

All rolls for non-experts are done as x-in-12 and rolled on 1d12.

All skills begin at a rating of 1-in-12

All expert skills are done as x-in-12 and rolled on 2d6.

All skills begin at a rating of 3-in-12

Experts start with specific skills that non-experts cannot attempt, which are hiding in shadows, picking locks, and picking pockets. Unless another character has a class that specifically states they may attempt these skills and/or they have gained in-game training or another means of accomplishing said skill, all attempts are to be treated as obvious failures.

Some stats affect skills as well, such as STR modifying OPEN DOORS.

There is a non comprehensive list of skills below, and what their availability is as far as classes.

Experts gain Skill points as they level up at a rate of 6 at level one and 3 at every level beyond that, they may use these to level any of the listed skills, or skills that the player and GM agree upon. 

Some classes (Such as barbarian with Climb Sheer Surfaces) will level certain skills as an expert skill due to their relationship to the class progression. The skill chart will be listed with the class.

OPTION: Any player with the time, gold, and access to the pertinent teacher can learn to use a skill, with non specialists still rolling 1d12 and specialists rolling 2d6. Additionally, specialists may use their Skill Points on any skill that the GM deems they have the access and ability to learn and use, with little to no regards to time, and possibly only an initial investment, dependent on circumstance.

Non-experts must seek out training to increase their non-class skills, reflecting the non-linearity of the skills in relation to their class. Experts may also choose to do this.

An example, in a campaign where magic is common, a specialist meets a Mage and pays him well to teach him Rally/Fear, the specialist Gains the ability to use Rally/Fear AND spend skill points on it as he spends his time teaching himself and learning from any resources like books, this reflects the specialists natural aptitude for skills and learning.

For a non specialist learning skills should be very expensive and time consuming, or as a reward for a long quest.

Below is a collected chart of many of the skills listed for OSE, including the alternative Magic skills for the Acolyte and Mage from Carcass Crawler by Gavin Norman.

[bipolarbarbarian]

House-rules, Collective Game Ownership, and Traditions

Ahhh house-rules. The exotic laws of foreign domains that your neighbors used to cheat at monopoly (I cheated the morally justified way, stealing straight from the bank).

Like the endless iterations of BBQ in the south, sausage dishes in Central and Eastern Europe, and potatoes... well everywhere, house rules for games, when leveraged right truly prove to me that variety is the spice of life.

This is, I realize, a core tenet of OSR play, as far as Rulings not Rules goes and its natural evolution into alternate mechanics or hacks of different games.

But I don't want to talk about mechanics here, not really. I want to talk about game ownership, tradition, and comfort.

As I'm sure most of you know, roleplaying is a social construct, a series of interactions governed by spoken and unspoken rules.

The thing I think is so great about house rules, is that they are essentially modifiers or riders to that social contract, increasing the amount of autonomy that you and your group have to act within that system.

It makes the thing not just something you play anymore, but something that is yours when you play it your way.

I think this is a really big key for allowing your home games to be what they are there to be, safe and fun.

That ownership doubles to undercut the GM-Player dichotomy as well, give your players a vote, give them their seat at the table, watch how it makes their interest and interaction flourish.

My wife and I talk about boundaries alot, and how respecting and speaking on them drives home the ability for both parties to iterate and become comfortable within each others flow and space.

Thinking about house rules has been pushing my mind toward thinking about Session Zero as well. When you sit down at session zero you say this is what I'm looking for as a group and you all walk thinking either "this ain't my campaign" or "we are all gonna make this work". House-rules can function like a sessions long, campaigns long, or decades long continuing Session Zero to fit just you and your group.

Imagine the comfort your table would have making routine rulings on mechanical matters after you implemented half a dozen house rules. It would be mind bogglingly easy and significantly speed up your games and drop unnecessary tension.

That sounds dope as fuck to me.

But owning your game feels like it shouldn't end there. Mechanical rules and rulings are obviously an integral part, and maybe THE integral part of your game, but they are far from the be all end all.

This is where I think traditions arise, broadly as a testament to your mini culture among your tablemates, and specifically as a celebration of your connection, and your ability to find that same page.

That ones a lot more vague for me right now, and I might come back to it, but for now, discuss your use of house rules and traditions for your tables, and focus on things that people will remember, things that will make them feel welcome, and things that will strengthen your social contract.

[bipolarbarbarian]

CRATERLAND synopsis pt.1

While it's still VERY much a work in progress, I have a set name, rough world structure, and the races I want to be native to what will be my upcoming campaign setting.

I have taken cracks at homebrew worlds before, but this is my first time adding homebrew classes or real in-game content like possibly mechanics or magic items.

There are maybe 3 or 4 inspirations that have really informed my beginning to create CRATERLAND (CL for short).

But the basis for the whole idea was I just wanted a giant, kitchen sink, playground of a world. So a big focus in creating it thus far has been shedding directed and linear writing, and instead literally just putting into it what I think is cool, neat, and odd, kind of in that order.

That spirit of anything goes and the more the merrier is what I have always loved about D&D specifically.

I remember seeing warforged in 3.5 for the first time and my eyes rolling back in my head, like holy fuck you can play a robot barbarian, still to this day that is mind numbinglt cool to me. Thats the attitude I want for CL, if I think its cool and something I would want, regardless of theme or genre, its in.

So back to those 3 or 4 influences, I wanted to list them out so that people can maybe see where I'm coming from with these ideas. So here they are!

Adventure Time

Eberron (Specifically the 3.5 version)

The art of Mike Mignola

Final Fantasy and JRPG stories (Like FFXII and FFVII)

Joseph Campbell and his books on mythology

These things have over the last two months, which is the period I've been working on this for, become ingrained as solid things that I look to for inspiration and fun bullshit. I think Eberron especially because it is my brothers favorite campaign setting. And that it really was that first holy shit, kick in the face, fantasy can be like this experience for me.

Adventure Time and Pendleton Wards penchant for balls to the wall insanity and psychedelia have been very instrumental to me as a creative as well, I mean the dude made candy a primal element, that guys the shit.

I have a series of posts planned for exploring my affection for each of those individually at some point as well.

And finally (for today) the class/races of CL. I wanted something different and weird, that at the very least wasn't just halflings, elves, dwarves, and humans.

There's a sort of rhyme and reason to these races, albeit a messy one. They are each going to correspond to a color, and colors are going to play a central role in the world fiction.

Thats going to be my next couple posts is just writing those races and fleshing them out, and fleshing out bits of the lore.

So without further adieu the race are going to be Gargoyles, Floranomes (psychedelic cactus gnomes that gained consciousness from the influence of a dead god on nature), Primmkin (Like monkey bugbear elves), Jellytons (Skeletons possessed by intelligent jelly that all recently animated and function as a semi hive mind), and the only Humans native to CL, the Daughters of Yonn that I posted yesterday.

I will have more in Part 2 as soon as its written!

[bipolarbarbarian]

Daughter of Yonn (Daughters):

A small sect of women foretold the fall of Athlon, and left it 50 years before it was destroyed. They are now the majority of humans left on the planet. They live nomadically on the land and sea. They stay in and aboard fungal houses and ships, mostly concentrated on the coasts but sometimes trekking across the continent to trade. Their numbers have dwindled but travellers now claim to have seen new young… no one is quite sure how this occurred. Intelligent and tactical, they are masters of knowledge, tactics, and lore.

HD: d6 

REQ: None 

PRIME REQ: INT

Attack as Halfling

Save as Cleric

RESTRICTIONS:

-1 to reaction rolls, you are unused to being around people and many are unsettled seeing a human

You can use a spear, bow, or one handed sword

Any Armor except Plate

No level restriction

SKILLS:

Lore (LR): A Daughter has a chance of knowing lore pertaining to monsters, magic items, or heroes of folk-tale or legend. This ability may be used to identify the nature and powers of magic items. The skill table for this is below

Intuitive (IN): A Daughter has a 3-in-6 chance of detecting intentional lying. 

This increases to 4-in-6 at level 9

Find or remove treasure traps (TR): A roll is required to find a treasure trap and then another to remove it. It may be attempted only once per trap.

SPECIAL ABILITIES:

Tactician: You can add your INT score to attack rolls instead of DEX (ranged) or STR (melee).

Use Magic: A Daughter can use Magic Scrolls and Items. Roll for lore and on a success the magic is cast successfully. On a failure roll on the backfire table for a deleterious effect.

Strategize: Once per day per every two levels: Help an ally using a skill or making an attack. For an attack add 1d4 to their next attack roll and damage roll. For a skill upgrade their chance by 1 OR 10.

So a 1 in 6 chance becomes a 2 in 6 and a 20% chance becomes a 30% chance.

Missile Damage Bonus: Daughter’s keen insight grants them a +1 bonus to damage rolls with all missile weapons.

Chieftain: At level 12, you gain 1d4 Daughter followers, and may recruit others Daughters after gaining their trust

[bipolarbarbarian]

Words, words, words...

Had the parents in town this weekend, that was a great feeling. One of the first times I've been able to have my parents visit me and not feel manic or fall into past bad habits while they're around.

It was really refreshing. Me and my siblings went through a lot of trauma when we were kids (im the youngest of five) and I was finally able to have a normal weekend with my parents for maybe one of the first times in my life at 27.

Me and my wife took in my nieces recently to live and stay with us. My mom and dad had been caring for them, and I felt that to break a cycle of trauma in our family that goes back literally hundreds of years we needed to have them here where we can give them consistency and attention and curtail the things that affected me as a child, and begin their healing process much earlier than mine or my siblings began.

They are developing an early love for TTRPGs as well, and im going to be running a one shot for them here soon.

(One is going to be a barbarian, the other an acrobat, and my wife chose a duergar, i'm happy with the spread)

That was my escape as a kid, well that and video games.

Know that, if you need to cut out your family, that's ok, if they choose to stay gone or not change, that's on them, and if you need to forgive your family and push them to get help, that's ok too.

Around 4 and a half years ago, I put a loaded gun in my mouth and was very close to ending it all.

My mom told me at that time that "theres a long way between putting the gun in your mouth and pulling the trigger" and changed the subject. That hurt me for a long time.

This past weekend my mom talked about going to a psychiatrist and seeing a therapist, and how she had struggled with her own suicide attempt.

She still has a lot of problems, she still did a lot of things wrong for me and my siblings, but I am still proud of her, and I still love her, and I was finally able to enjoy her company without great mental stress this weekend.

What a ways we've come.

The picture is "Visions of Tondal" by Hieronymous Bosch

[bipolarbarbarian]

Werewolf Class for Old School Essentials

I'm gonna try and whip up and post some homebrew classes for Old School Essentials and I thought a werewolf would be a perfect first pass.

Kind of a barbarian mixed with a ranger, i threw some of my own flavor in there as well.

Requirements: Bitten by a werewolf

Hit Dice: 1d8

Max Level: 12

Armor: Leather Only

Weapons: Any (Werewolf/Human form), None (Animal Form)

Languages: Wolf, Common

Attack Progression as Fighter (Werewolf form) or Thief (Human form)

Save Progression as Barbarian

Werewolf Form: 1/day/level (Forced on full moon)

The cursed person can change into their werewolf form once per day per level, and is forced into that form on a full moon. In their werewolf form their attack bonus increases (to fighter of the same level). They grow claws and fangs that can be used to attack for 2d4 damage. In this form you are immune to nonmagical weapon damage (You can be harmed by fire and by falling from great heights, etc) but take double damage from silver weapons, and magic (not magic weapons) deals an extra 2 damage per hit against you while in werewolf form.

Awareness:

You may only be surprised on a roll of 1 due to your ability to smell things near and far.

Skills:

Tracking as Ranger

Move Silently as Barbarian

Hide in undergrowth as Barbarian

Wolf Form:

a werewolf can turn into a wolf (See Wolf stats) once per day per level. They retain their consciousness and thoughts, but are unable to communicate other than with wolves. Their armor, weapons, and anything they are carrying fall off when they transform.

Only what you can carry:

Werewolves may only keep the possessions they can carry themselves and with a mount if they have one. All other possessions must be donated to a worthy cause and NOT to other players.

Pack Leader:

at 10th level, you can begin to attract other creatures like yourself, you can gain 2d6 followers. Their nature is up to you and the referee, they may be special monsters, animals, or fantastic mounts.

Exp Progression

0

2,350

4,700

9,400

18,800

37,600

75,200

150,400

270,400

390,400

510,400

630,400

[bipolarbarbarian]

Pack it up Pack it in... Let me begin

Hi all! My name is Snoop and I'm starting this blog to practice my RPG development, writing, and also to explore my mental health through the lens of my favorite hobby: making shit up!

This is my first post, and I feel like I've tried a thousand times to get a blog going, but have never been able to stick it out and get all that sweet popular blog glory and fame.

But a shooters gotta keep shooting.

So I'm going to try and post once a day on here, even if its just a small paragraph or a couple sentences, but I have plans to start dropping some of the RPG content I've been designing on here in roughcut form for people to nitpick and steal however they wish. This is going to be classes, monsters, items, and possibly rules for my own setting, which I'm using the Old School Essentials rules set for.

Also before I continue, yes I am actually bipolar, I suffer from deep depressive episodes and quickly cycle through mania as well, often multiple times in a day but sometimes over a period of weeks to a month. I have contemplated and attempted suicide before in my life and am going to be open about everything I can be. I want this to be a space for me to grow.

I want to use this page as an opportunity to talk about that and my struggles with it, and my feelings of failure and success over my own mental health.

I hope anybody who follows me enjoys this, and if you want to send an email, shoot me one at [email protected]